Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/469

 THE ROLE OF THE PHOENICIANS IN HISTORY. 429 conformity with the spirit of the time, and, although it inspired distrust, it was regular enough in its methods. Stories told by both Homer and Herodotus show them to us as abductors of women and children, 1 but in the then state of the world even deeds like those described would soon be forgotten, and after a time the faithless traders would be readmitted for the sake of the wares they brought. In his account of the rape of lo, Herodotus tells us that the Phoenicians had in their ship " Egyptian and Assyrian goods." This we have divined from our examination of the remains that have come down to us, but it is pleasant to find our conclusions supported by a witness like Herodotus, who must often, in the course of his long voyages about the coasts of the Mediterranean, have seen the Phoenician cargoes unpacked upon the beach. Seeing how great their services were to the civilization of Greece and Rome, and how admirable were those virtues of industry, activity, and splendid courage that they brought to their work, how is it that the classic writers speak of the Phoenicians with so little sympathy ? and why does the modern historian, in spite of his breadth and freedom from bias, find it difficult to treat them even with justice ? It is because, in spite of their long relations with them, the peoples of Greece and Italy never learnt to really know the Phoenicians or to understand their language, and, to answer the second question, because our modern historians are hardly better in- formed. Between Greece and Rome on the one hand and Phoenicia and Carthage on the other, there was a barrier which was never beaten down. They traded and they fought, but they never concluded a lasting and cordial peace ; they made no effort to comprehend each other's nature, but retained their mutual, ignorant antipathy to the very end. In later ages when all races were welded into apparent unity under the hand of Rome, the same antagonism was manifested in a different way. It was to a Semitic people that the world owed a new religion and a new literature, but from the very day that the Bible conquered its final supremacy, the West began again to hate and persecute the Shemite. Between the two races there has been from the beginning of things both constant and fertile communication and a perpetual misunderstanding ; they have never been able to let each other alone and they have never agreed. 1 HOMER, Odyssey, xv. 415-484; HERODOTUS, i. i.